[geordiegeek]

Hi all

I have been working on a new web site that not only compares computer
prices but also scores them based on the components they are built
with so even though you might not understand the geeky parts you can
see the overall rating.

I am looking for some feedback on the site as I doing a small scale
launch so any comments / ideas are most welcome.

The site is www.PCchecker.co.uk and is similar in style to my other
site www.Mobilechecker.com which some people on these forums might know and which compares mobile phone prices.

Cheers in advance for any comments!

Andy

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Your "PC Checker Rating" is far too confusing even for those of us who know what the jargon means.

I can only assume your percentages are a part of a recommended minimum. As an example, a machine with 512Mb of memory you rate as 16.6% and a 160Gb HDD as 25%.

Elsewhere a machine with a 320Gb HDD gets only 50% and 3Gb of memory is 100%.

You seem to be suggesting 3Gb of memory, a 640Gb HDD drive, a processor with 8Mb cache and a graphics card with 768Mb of memory are all "100%" material. Anybody's guess as how you can claim a score of 96% for Vista Premium and 80% for Vista Basic.

You should also justify how you've ended up rating a PC at 36.5%. 36.5% of what? Shouldn't this ideally be a rating such as 3.6 out of 10 or something more meaningful? Perhaps take into consideration any pre-installed software other than Windows because this is often reflected in the price.

[Neil Jones]

Your "PC Checker Rating" is far too confusing even for those of us who know what the jargon means.

I can only assume your percentages are a part of a recommended minimum. As an example, a machine with 512Mb of memory you rate as 16.6% and a 160Gb HDD as 25%.

Elsewhere a machine with a 320Gb HDD gets only 50% and 3Gb of memory is 100%.

You seem to be suggesting 3Gb of memory, a 640Gb HDD drive, a processor with 8Mb cache and a graphics card with 768Mb of memory are all "100%" material. Anybody's guess as how you can claim a score of 96% for Vista Premium and 80% for Vista Basic.

You should also justify how you've ended up rating a PC at 36.5%. 36.5% of what? Shouldn't this ideally be a rating such as 3.6 out of 10 or something more meaningful? Perhaps take into consideration any pre-installed software other than Windows because this is often reflected in the price.

[geordiegeek]

Hi Neil

Thanks for the reply with your comments.

I could change the ratings to be out of 10, but by using the 100% method many users who have fed back to me in earlier testing have understood that 100% = the ultimate, ultimate computer if you like, compared against computers built with the latest, highest rated components currently in the database powering the site.

The scores for OS's are based on mine and other users opinions - with Vista being more 'future proof' than say Windows XP so scoring higher usually in it's varying flavours and Mac OS X Tiger scoring the same as Windows Vista Ultimate as these are both considered to be the top of their respective Operating System pecking order. Do you have any other ideas for this section?

I have not been able to get accurate data for other pre-installed software from the retailers YET but hopefully if the site proves popular then I can add such additional information to the component ratings as the retailers will make this readily available and as result make the site even more accurate by scoring each computer on more component parts.

To summarise the overall rating is as I say based on the overall computer’s parts, compared against the best components available currently which each score 100% and everything working backwards from that. The scoring knows the difference between laptops and desktops and will be tweaked in the future based on user feedback but the site is currently the fairest and most useful way I could come up with to help people see what computers are available and what they should be looking at spending to achieve their personal usage requirements.

Any other comments / discussion is most welcome as I genuinely want to improve the site to help people when buying computers.

Cheers

Andy

[Troy]

Vista Home Premium gets 96%? That's extremely debatable...

100% may very well equal the ultimate computer, but there are many variations of the ultimate computer. I have to admit I don't like the idea at all, and yet it may be quite helpful to someone who knows a little about computers.

Just my $0.02

[geordiegeek]

Vista Home Premium gets 96%? That's extremely debatable...

Well it did get 96% and not 100%

...which as I explained is the same as Apple's best offering and is really the only subjective scoring component on the site.

I appreciate you might not like the rating idea 100% but you seem to have acknowledged that the site might be useful for others who know little about computers which is who I am ideally aiming for. The geeks like me (and you?) might use it to check the latest deals but if I can help others to find the right computer's for the least amount of money then I will have achieved my aim

Thanks for the rational and decent feedback which is unusual on the web these days too btw!

[Troy]

Sure, no worries, I'll post the bill